Answer:
Fifty years ago last January, George C. Wallace took the oath of office as governor of Alabama, pledging to defy the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision prohibiting separate public schools for black students. “I draw the line in the dust,” Wallace shouted, “and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever” (Wallace 1963).
Eight months later, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King Jr. set forth a different vision for American education. “I have a dream,” King proclaimed, that “one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”
Wallace later recanted, saying, “I was wrong. Those days are over, and they ought to be over” (Windham 2012).
They ought to be over, but Wallace’s 1963 call for a line in the dust seems to have been more prescient than King’s vision. Racial isolation of African American children in separate schools located in separate neighborhoods has become a permanent feature of our landscape. Today, African American students are more isolated than they were 40 years ago, while most education policymakers and reformers have abandoned integration as a cause.
Explanation:
Unlike Atticus and Calpurnia, Harper Lee does not give us a paragraph describing Jem. Instead we must learn about his character through his actions and speech. Sometimes Scout will use a descriptive sentence for her brother's character but mostly the reader learns about him as the story progresses. Many of Jem's statements in the first chapter are written in the imperative mood. For example, he says, "Don't blame me when he gouges your eyes out." By using the imperative mood, Harper Lee shows Jem to be older and seemingly the leader of Dill and Scout. The use of the indicative mood in Jem's dialogue also shows his stubbornness as a leader. When Dill is pressuring him into touching the house of Boo Radley, Jem says, "I'm going...don't hurry me." Even though Jem is worried about what may happen when he touches the house, he stays in control of the situation by using both the indicative and imperative mood in this sentence. Jem is also seen as the protector of Scout. When Jem is hesitant about making Boo Radley come out of the house because he fears for his life, Scout notes, "Besides, Jem had his little sister to think of." It is clear from this sentence, that Jem looks out for Scout which shows that he is a protective, responsible older brother.
